Stories > Mirabella's Stories > After the Storm

After the Storm

by Mirabella-(V)
July 3, 2011

Cast above the tide, a tangle of seaweed and wood steamed in the sun. Imrahil and the children searched among the wreckage.

"Look, Uncle Imrahil!"" Faramir pointed to a curved plank that jutted from the sand.

"From a Southron ship, by the looks of it," Imrahil replied slowly. "Perhaps she was wrecked in the storm." Frowning, he glanced toward the sea that gleamed like a mirror of hammered silver.

"Maybe they were corsairs?" Boromir said with a hopeful look. "And they swam ashore with long knives in their teeth."

Dark head bowed, Faramir traced a finger along the strange carvings on the plank. "Why are ships called she? They're not beasts or people."

"Because�" Imrahil stopped. He could recite a dozen lewd jokes on the subject, but he did not know the true reason. Why were ships called she? "We will have to ask the loremasters," he told the child.

Boromir slashed at the air with a stick. "Uncle Imrahil, Faramir and I need swords if we're going to fight the corsairs." This was only the third time he had asked for a sword that day.

But the day is still young, Imrahil thought, trying not to laugh.

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